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Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkweed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Relationships
War, Dehumanization, and Innocence
Ingenuity, Resilience, and Survival
Family
Summary
Analysis
Misha continues smuggling food for Doctor Korczak’s orphans. Doctor Korczak urges Misha to “find the cow”: as the desperation for food and milk grows, everyone claims to have heard the cow mooing somewhere in the ghetto. As Misha and Janina squabble over the cow’s existence, Uncle Shepsel says that there is no cow. He’s been studying a book about becoming a Lutheran, claiming that if he’s no longer a Jew, he’ll be allowed to leave the ghetto.
Uncle Shepsel has never seemed to identify himself very strongly with the rest of the Milgrom family or with the suffering of his fellow Jews. Regardless of how sincere his interest in Lutheranism is, it’s unsurprising that he would have few qualms about finding a way to escape, even if it means leaving his family behind.
Themes
Once, when the orphan boys are joking around about the cow’s existence, Misha speaks up about Himmler. He says he can’t believe that the man who looked like a chicken could possibly be Himmler, but Uri tells him that it was. Then Misha starts losing respect for Jackboots and decides that he no longer wants to be one.
Misha is gradually realizing that reality quite often conflicts with the fantasies he’s constructed in his mind—like that of the Nazis as respectable soldiers. In this regard, his experience of the war erodes his innocence a bit more, but it also strengthens his ability to survive.
Themes
